It’s been exactly a month since I wrapped up my deep dive into the albums of Jackson Browne, and now he’s back with the first single from his upcoming release.
Browne’s 15th studio album, Downhill From Everywhere, is due out next month, seven years after what I suspected might be his last effort, 2014’s Standing in the Breach.
‘Panic’ is one of the better-known tracks from Louder Than Bombs, The Smiths’ 1987 compilation of singles and B-sides that hadn’t had a U.S. release. Pound for pound, this album rivals any of the band’s studio releases.
The story goes that Morrissey and Johnny Marr wrote ‘Panic’ after listening to coverage of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster followed immediately by a silly pop song. The opening verses describe a chaotic scene as people react to world events, before the chorus shifts to a call to arms against the DJ whose music choices are too frivolous.
I was surprised to see that today’s random track is only the second song I’ve posted from Tift Merritt’s 2004 sophomore album Tambourine. Even more surprising is that the first time was just last summer, when another of its songs showed up on a random weekend.
My love for Tift Merritt is well-documented on the blog, and I have featured her more than 40 times, yet somehow only two of those posts come from this album, the first of hers I heard.
If you stopped paying attention to Willow Smith, daughter of Will Smith and Jada Pinkett-Smith, after the annoying single ‘Whip My Hair,’ released in 2010 when she was 10 years old, you might be surprised that she has turned into a fascinating young artist.
At 15, she released the arty pop song ‘Wait a Minute!,’ a real blast that picked up steam a few years later when it became a popular TikTok soundtrack. Four full-length albums followed.
A couple of weeks ago, I featured ‘MONTERO (Call Me By Your Name),’ the latest hit single by Lil Nas X. He has since released another track from his upcoming album that I hope enjoys as much success.
‘Sun Goes Down,’ framed as a conversation between Lil Nas X and his younger self, is a heartwarming (and heartbreaking) look at the pressures of teenage life, especially for a kid who is Black and gay.
